


what a sight for sore eyes

by NightshadeDawn



Series: butterflies of fate [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona 5: Royal
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Suicide, Gen, Good Boy Sakamoto Ryuji, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Phantom Thief Suzui Shiho, Pretty Boy Ryuji, Pretty Boy Sakamoto Ryuji, because... shiho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26643190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightshadeDawn/pseuds/NightshadeDawn
Summary: Small changes have big side effects.Ryuji never joins track, and is instead a model.Ann doesn't mess around with her modeling and is serious about it.Shiho never jumps.Despite this, Akira is still an outcast, and the path to redemption is still practically the same.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira & Suzui Shiho, Sakamoto Ryuji & Suzui Shiho, Sakamoto Ryuji & Takamaki Ann, Suzui Shiho & Takamaki Ann
Series: butterflies of fate [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938373
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47





	what a sight for sore eyes

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning of this was basically my desire for Pretty Boy Ryuji and is based off [this](https://nightshadedawn.tumblr.com/post/626595970383298560) picture. Please go check out the original artist.
> 
> TW: Mentions of rape because Kamoshida, and mentions of suicide because Shiho. All my bases are covered now.

It starts like this: Ryuji Sakamoto, second year middle school student, is tall for his age and toned due to a various of activities such as deciding he needed to be strong for his mother and just getting into the habit of keeping himself in peak physical condition for his age. He’s unruly and too laid back for his teachers’ liking, but hasn’t yet unlearned how to bite back anything that would get him hit. His mother won’t let him bleach his hair yet, claiming he’s too young, but Ryuji is still within the circles of most people at school because he’s a known people pleaser, wanting nothing more than to be liked and hating nothing more than feeling like he’s in danger because of someone who has power over him.

It’s Ryuji’s desire to be liked and to help that leads Shiho Suzui, fellow second year middle school student, to hand Ryuji a paper bag with an expensive store’s logo on it. 

“Can you take this to Ann?” she asks, hands clasped together while giving Ryuji pleading puppy dog eyes. “She needs it for an important photoshoot on Central Street but I have to go meet my tutor or I’ll be kicked off the volleyball team.”

In another universe, this is not a conversation Ryuji has. In this other universe, Ryuji is approached by a track runner exactly ten second before Shiho would have approached him for this task, asking Ryuji to join track practice to help spot the other runners. This practice would have resulted in Ryuji joining track, going on to play it in high school and eventually getting his leg broken by an absolutely terrible ex-olympic athlete-- but this is not that universe, and Ryuji has this gaudily pink paper bag in his hand with an extravagantly shiny purple design on it, and he nods because he wants to help people.

“Sure,” he tells her, and Shiho beams at him before running off to go find her tutor.

Ryuji leaves the school and goes down to Central Street, trying very hard to ignore the stares of the people on the trains and sidewalks as they see this middle school boy holding a bag from a store that he obviously can’t afford to shop at.

The scene Ryuji arrives at is utter chaos. Ann sit idly in the shade of a large umbrella as adults with probably very important jobs Ryuji doesn’t know the names of run around what he’s pretty sure they call a ‘set’ (he listens to Ann and Shiho talk sometimes, but he hardly remembers what they talk about, the terminology going right over his head) and yell about a missing model.

Ann looks up form filing her nails and spots Ryuji, then breaks out in an absurdly blinding smile when she sees the bag Ryuji’s holding. 

“Ryuji!” she calls, waving him over and causing some of the adults to freeze in place and look over to her as Ryuji nervously approaches. 

Ryuji holds out the bag and Ann takes it excitedly, pulling out a classy outfit that his mother would say didn’t fit a real middle school student- but Ann was a model, so things were different, at least Ryuji assumed. Ann turns her amazing smile back to Ryuji. 

“Thanks!” she says. “We would have been screwed if I didn't get this outfit- we’re already missing the male model-”

“Maybe not!” an extravagant male voice exclaims as a man who matches every description of ‘extravagant’ walks over to them, holding a sizable pile of stapled together papers and flapping them up and down. 

He tosses the papers behind him and Ryuji doesn’t get the chance to see them fall to the ground, though he can hear it, when the man suddenly grabs Ryuji’s cheeks, turning his face this way and that. He just as quickly steps back, placing one hand on his chin and the other around his waist, as he looks Ryuji up and down with a critical eye. 

“Straighten out the posture and comb that hair out of his face, and we might just have a stand in,” the man says. “He’s about the right size, with some minor adjustments.” He leans into Ryuji’s face, though this time does not grab him. Strawberry is not a scent he would have associated with a man, ever, but it seems somehow appropriate for this one. “Young man, have you ever considered a career in modeling?”

Ryuji’s eyes widen. “Uh, um, n-not really…?” That was a girl thing, wasn’t it? Girls were models. Not guys. But, well, there were guys on the covers of magazines too, so it was  _ theoretically _ possible, but that was just one of those things that  _ boys just do not do _ and Ryuji probably would have gotten smacked for even brining it up.

The man claps his hands together. “Well, would you like to?” he questions, eyes bright and sparkly and Ryuji should not have been thinking that was pretty. 

Ann jumps up from her seat and wraps her arms around Ryuji’s, looking exceptionally excited at the prospect of working with Ryuji. “Pleeeeease?” she begs, and Ryuji knows she’s being sincere because her acting is  _ shit _ .

“I-I don’t know…” Ryuji says, looking away from her with a bright blush on his cheeks. 

“This shoot pays a lot!” Ann exclaims. “And it’s just the one! If you don’t like it, I won’t bother you about it ever again! But please, please, please? It’ll be fun!”

Ryuji turns back to Ann, studying her quizzically. His mom  _ was _ in a tight spot right now, trying to pay off the old bastard’s debts he’d left behind… And they really did look like they were in a tight spot, so he really wanted to help… He bites his lip.”How much are we talkin’…?”

The man pulls out his phone and types in a few numbers before showing Ryuji. Ryuji’s eyes go wide. The man grins at Ryuji’s reaction. “This look good for you, young man?”

“Y-Yeah…” Ryuji says, and just like that, he’s pulled into his first modeling gig.

The director and Ann’s manager Tsubasa Maki, the eccentric man who approached him, talk about Ryuji substituting, and he gets in after Mr. Maki calls Ryuji’s mother for permission. She gives it wholeheartedly after a short conversation with Ryuji, and Ryuji gets tossed into a changing room to change into the most expensive clothing he has worn in his life. 

When he exits, Ann squeals with a blush on her cheeks and Mr. Maki looks proud of himself. “I never miss a good talent,” he says, pushing off his glasses and making the light reflect off of them. 

The actual shoot takes much longer, with Ryuji being new and stiff for the first several poses. But they finish before the sun goes down, and the director treats Ann and Ryuji to dinner, downright jovial over the successful shoot. 

Two weeks later, Ryuji receives his paycheck and a copy of the magazine where he and Ann are featured on the front page, almost unrecognizable because of how  _ good _ they look. And Ryuji’s mom is so  _ proud _ of him and hugs him tightly, fixing him all of his favorite for dinner.

It’s not long before Ann asks him to accompany her to another shoot for him to model again. Then another. And another. And another. To the point that Mr. Maki approaches Ryuji about signing onto Ann’s modeling company to receive proper training and an official manager, not to mention solo shoots. 

The hefty paychecks help with the easy decision, but so does Ann’s excited look and how she exclaims about how much fun she’ll have helping him prepare for his solo shoots. 

It starts like this: Ann Takamaki, third year middle school student, has one friend, Shiho Suzui. She also has her modeling, which despite only treating it as a hobby has grown her name all over Japan. She sees what the other, more serious models go through, and promptly decides that she likes food and lazing around too much to go at it like them.

But then Ryuji, who Ann has never really thought of as attractive, quickly finds himself growing in popularity under the management and training of Mr. Maki. It almost pisses her off that he’s doing so much better than her when he’s so new to modeling, and only got into it by chance (completely ignoring the fact the way she got into it as well is similar, and she had her parents connections to help her). 

Ann knows he was given the choice of going easy or taking it seriously, and due to his age and temperament, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone, least of all Ann, if he wanted to take it easy and only use modeling to earn some extra cash now and then like her. But the ‘once in a while’ offers didn’t seem to agree with him, and he once told her in confidence that he wanted the money to help his mom as much as he liked, and if there wasn’t much he was good at, why not give it all to what he was?

With these in mind, Mr. Maki’s manager skills come in full force. Stricter training, a stricter diet, and management of time and physical activities. Really, the only things that change are that he was eating healthy and training  _ every _ day instead of half the week. Most of that was already part of his routine, but now he couldn’t slack off on it or he’d get an earful from Mr. Maki. 

And Ann, ever the competitive one, wasn’t about to be left behind by newcomer Ryuji, so begins working harder as well and taking her modeling gigs seriously. She laments for weeks about not being able to have her chocolate crepes as often as she’d like- but then just as quickly switch to “It’s for my modeling! I can do it!” so fast she’d give Ryuji and Shiho whiplash.

It starts out as only Ann and Shiho and sometimes the tagalong Ryuji, but then somehow becomes Ann, Shiho, and Ryuji, a trio of good friends, two being attractive models that are often found on the covers of magazines and fashion catalogs, their careers growing larger with each passing month.

And as the end of their third year approached, Mr. Maki’s concerns grew too. 

“He’ll fade into obscurity once you step into the broader modeling world,” Mr. Maki said, nervously tapping on his bottom lip. “You don’t have a distinctive enough…  _ image _ .”

Ann began bouncing excitedly in her seat. “Oh, oh, what if he bleached his hair?” she suggested, eyes wide and smile excited. Ryuji had thought about it, discussing how he’d look in length with Ann, but hadn’t ever brought it up. All changes to his look, like bleaching or dyeing hair, had to be run by Mr. Maki so they could schedule shoots accordingly. 

But Mr. Maki shook his head. “Too many models are doing it,” he said. “That would be just as bad as just natural… And you’re too young for tattoos…” Not that Ann thought Ryuji would look good with some anyway, he was too much of a good boy to pull off the bad boy persona. Ryuji didn’t seem too interested in them either. In fact, it seemed he frowned at the thought. 

Ryuji scratched the back of his head. “…What if we dyed it?” he suggested. “Not bleached but like, a stand-out color…”

Mr. Maki and Ann’s eyes widened, both wide matching grins stretching across their faces. Apparently, a grand idea.

And that was how Ryuji entered his first day at Shujin Academy at Ann’s side with a bright but pleasantly pink hair and long earring hanging from one of his ears. Ann had snorted at the rash choice of earring (both were lucky that Mr. Maki had not chewed them out for it, as Ann had been there when Ryuji got his ears pierced without consulting him). 

“You look like a knockoff K-Pop singer,” she told him. But Mr. Maki had basically given Ryuji heart eyes when he turned up to their meeting before school, so that was a win?

Almost as soon as they entered the school, excited whispers began to follow them.

“Oh my god, I didn’t believe it when I heard, but they actually go here-!”

“He looks so good even with pink hair.”

“Wow, we’re so lucky! I hope he’s in my class!”

“God, that earring makes him look hot.”

“She works with him all the time! She’s so lucky!”

“I heard rumors that they’re dating, so I’d give him up if I were you.”

“Ugh! No way! But a girl can dream!”

In another universe, and even in the past, Ryuji Sakamoto would have preened at such rumors. But this Ryuji was of this universe and had become accustomed to them, so they had long lost their appeal. To Ann, it was pretty much the same. But in another universe, they would have bothered her a lot more, because she would not have had Ryuji to stand by her side and protect her. 

“How long before one of us gets a love letter?” Ann asked, pushing a pigtail over her shoulder while they headed to their separate homerooms. 

Ryuji pinched the bridge of his nose, wanting to slouch as if that would hide him but knowing that Mr. Maki would scold him if he found out about it, and sighed. “I hope never,” he grumbled. 

Ann giggled and poked his side. “That’s no fun,” she teased.

“Don’t you get irritated by guys perving on you?”

“Not when I’ve got my big strong bodyguard by my side to protect me!” Ann declared. 

Ryuji grinned at her, the same, honest grin that had won over the masses in the early years but rarely made their way onto the magazine covers these days. He was tall and strong, yeah, but would still be scolded if he got in a fight and ended up with a bruise or, heaven forbid, a scratch or scar.

It would be my pleasure to tell you that because of this new arrangement and how close the two were to each other and Shiho, that things with the perverted teacher Suguru Kamoshida would have turned out differently than in any other universe. However, the only thing that really seemed to change was that instead of insisting that Ann was dating Kamoshida, the rumors spread that she was caught in a love triangle with Ryuji and Kamoshida. Some sided and rooted for Ryuji, while the other half of the student body seemed to root for Kamoshida. Rumors that the two of them blocked out almost successfully, only having feelings of friendship for each other. 

Perhaps the only other significant changes was that Ryuji was there to hold Ann as she cried after being hassled by Kamoshida and Ryuji’s leg stayed wonderfully intact. Otherwise, things unfortunately stayed the same.

And so they entered their second year, the year in which we all know everything changes. 

It starts like this: There’s a first year high school boy in a small town called Inaba named Akira Kursuru. He’s usually a good boy, quiet and studious and serious, though known by his parents as a troublemaker who couldn’t control his hands. The girls at school know him as a heart breaker, a pretty face and hot bod, but never able to settle down. The boys know him as a cocky little shit, the one who will do anything if you dare him to… or tell him that he can’t. Besides this, a good boy, who only had the best interests of others at heart.

It’s a mixture of these things that leads Akira to stand between a drunk, bleeding man and a terrified woman who watches on in horror as Akira takes the blame. 

It’s his reputation as a reckless idiot, a heartbreaker, and a troublemaker that overrides what everyone knows to be true- that Akira Kursuru is a good boy. They see the labels and turn him away, send him away, and he goes to Tokyo.

In another universe, Akira meets Ann and Ryuji under an overhang while it rains his first day of his second year of highschool. In this other universe, Ann gets in Kamoshida’s car and Akira and Ryuji end up in a perverse castle’s dungeon and have to fight their way out. But in this universe, Akira stands alone, oblivious as Ann and Ryuji ride with Mr. Maki to school, talking about their next shoot.

Akira arrives to his first day of school on time, early even, and holds his tongue as he listens to the rumors about him. He introduces himself, and that is it. He does not speak another word unless spoken to, and somehow that makes things worse.

By day four, Akira finds himself up on the roof in the morning before school even starts, halfway onto considering skipping completely. He startles when the door to the roof opens, and the girl who appears seems startled too. She’s covered in bruises and bandages, and there’s hardly a light left in her eyes.

“Oh… I didn’t know there was anyone up here,” she began, looking away. “I can go…”

“You can stay,” Akira tells her, because she doesn’t look like she should, or wants to be, alone. 

She sits on the desk next to him neither speaking. The longer they sit, the heavier the weight dragging her down seems to become. Tears begin to well up in her eyes, until finally they begin to fall and pool in her lap.

“Are you okay?” Akira asks, because he just can’t leave her alone. 

“I can’t stand this place, I can’t stand this school!” she screams, pressing her palms into her eyes as if those would stop her tears. “I- I- I- I so  _ tired _ . They know, they all know about everything going on, but they- they don’t  _ care _ ! They see what we’re going through, and they ignore it for the sake of  _ trophies _ ! But is it worth it!? What he’s done, what he’s put us through, what he did to me-!?”

She stops being able speak, curling into a ball as her sobs overtake her. Akira places a hand on her back and she flinches at the touch, but grabs his wrist when he goes to pull his hand away. When her tears finally begin to dry, she let his wrist go and sits up. 

“I’m sorry,” she says, brushing stray tears away. “I didn’t- You didn’t need that. You didn’t need me to unload all of that on you. Don’t mind me. I’ll be- I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Akira asks. The girls gives him an odd, half-hearted smile.

She turns away again, hanging her head in shame. “Am I?” she says, more to herself than to Akira. “Would you say I was if I told you that I came up here to jump?”

“You look like you could use a friend.”

“I have friends.”

“Well, now you have another.” Akira winks at her, smirking at her playfully and drawing out a watery laugh. “Akira Kursuru, at your service.”

She shakes her head. “Shiho Suzui.”

In another universe, Shiho Suzui would have jumped. She would have survived- in most every scenario, she always does- but she would have been damaged, and she would not have seen the justice she deserved with her own eyes. In this scenario, Shiho does not jump. Instead, she sits by a boy and makes a tentative friendship.

They sit together on the roof until the bell to begin class rings, and yet still neither moves. Shiho’s hands curl around the edge of the desk she sits on, knuckles going white. 

“I don’t know if it really stopped me,” she says. “You being here… Right now, I don’t want to try… I don’t think I ever really did… but… I don’t know what I’m saying.”

Akira pulls a leg up to his chest, wrapping an arm around it and leaning his chin on his knee. “Well, I’ll just have to give you a reason to keep going,” he says. “Go out with me on Sunday.”

Shiho snorts and giggles, eying Akira. “What, like a date?” she jokes.

“Only if you want it to be,” he teases right back, before becoming serious again. “Go out with me on Sunday, show me the best places. You can’t just cancel on me, right? And then next time I can take you somewhere.”

“There’s already a next time?”

“See, you’re getting it.”

Shiho smiles, slowly kicking her legs back and forth. “Hmm… yeah. That seems fun.”

And that is how the delinquent and the girl from the rumors become friends.

Akira comes to know Ann and Ryuji in passing. Ann, because she’s in his class and is friends with Shiho, and Ryuji, because he is friends with them both. And it’s very hard not to notice the boy with pink hair, despite the fact Shiho has to patiently explain to Akira that the reason none of the teacher say anything to him about dying it black is because Ryuji is a pretty popular model who brings status to their school.

Akira doesn’t really get it, but it’s fine.

Shiho sits on the roof at lunch with Akira most days. She’d eat with Ann and Ryuji more, but they’re so busy, and she can’t tell them about her issues with Kamoshida. So she sits with Akira, forcing herself to eat  _ something _ while he bandages her sprains and wounds. She takes shady medicine that Akira gets from the doctor near Leblanc. They work like miracles, so she doesn’t ask questions.

“Kamoshida is just… he’s a pervert,” Shiho complains as lunch begins to draw to a close. 

Her wounds are all patched up, so she and Akira sit against the grate surrounding the roof, Akira on his phone trying to delete the weird app once again. He took it to a shop the day before, but the people working just complained about him wasting their time. Despite fiddling with his phone, he listens intently.

“I can’t stand being in the same room as him!” Shiho continues. “How did Ryuji describe it…? Right. He acts like he’s the king of a castle. If he left, Shujin Academy would be a lot better off, don’t you think?”

It takes no more than seconds after Shiho has stopped speaking for the world to distort and shift around them, pulling and turning vibrant, gaudy colors before settling as something that neither Akira nor Shiho recognized. 

The sky above was a purplish haze, and the roof they were on was not Shujin Academy’s. They both jumped to their feet, back pressing together as they looked around in a mix of confusion and fear.

“What the hell…” Shiho said, hands clenching into fists. 

“Intruders!”

Four people, tall, broad, covered in medieval armor, surrounded them from all sides. And within moment, the world went black. 

In almost every universe, the entrance into Kamoshida’s Castle is completely by accident. In most, it is with Ryuji. And generally, the duo will awaken in a cell together. In this universe, Akira enters by accident, with Shiho, but wakes up in a cell alone. 

There’s nothing in the cell. No hole in the wall, no hidden escape route, no fallen key in the piles of sand, only a couple of Shiho’s hair clips stuffed into the pocket of his blazer form days prior when she quickly redid her hair before practice but left the clips behind.

It’s not much, but it’s all he has to go with.

Shiho wakes up alone too. She wakes up in a room, not quite a cell but not meant for the inhabitant’s comfort. She screams and pounds on the door until her hands are bruised and her voice is raw. The door opens, revealing Kamoshida and several of those old fashioned guards. 

Shiho’s heart rate quickens at his disgusting stare, like he’s undressing her with his eyes. The way his hands twitch tell her it won’t just be figuratively if she can’t escape. He grabs her wrist, and Shiho immediately begins to struggle. 

“Let go of me!” she screams, but still cannot pull away from Kamoshida. He only lets her go to slap her across the cheek and send her to the ground at his feet. 

“An unworthy bitch like you should be glad to service me!” Kamoshida shouts, his voice odd and echoing. “I own you! I created you!”

Shiho’s entire body trembles, hands shaking against the cold stone floor. Despite this, she can’t help but to laugh, her chuckles at first low and quiet before quickly growing in volume. 

“Don’t make me laugh! You did not  _ create  _ me. You did not make me into who I am.” Shiho pulls herself to her feet. “The only thin you have  _ ever done _ is take advantage of others who are too weak to fight back.” Her eyes alight with fire as she glares at Kamoshida. “You… You are nothing but a despicable bastard who deserves to rot in hell!”

Shiho’s eyes go wide and a loud pounding  _ boom _ seems to push through her, making her drop to her knees. She screams, clutching at her face where a black, blue, and gold mask in the shape of a wolf face appears.

Her fingers curl around the mask as a ringing voice speaks in her ear. 

_ “Hmmm… you have finally awoken, eh? It took you long enough.” _ The voice chuckles, full of mother affection, as if amused.  _ “You may think of yourself as weak, but your determination sees you through all. Yes, I am thou… Thou art I… I am the weapon of your truth. I am your knife against injustice. Come! Let us steal back your honor and make right what was wrong!” _

Shiho stops struggling, lowering one of her hands to hold only the one against her mask. She closes her eyes, shoulders relaxing. “Come, Boudicca.”

With a swash of blue light, Kamoshida and his guards are blown backwards. When the light fades away, Shiho stands before the group in a skintight black suit, dark blue arm guards strapped to her lower arms, and all accented in gold. A long scarf covered in dark blue hydrangea flutters behind her, and a very sharp, deadly naginata held aloft in her hands.

Blue flames danced around the room with a single word from Shiho, the woman, Boudicca, her Persona, laughing gleefully each time Shiho shouted her orders. 

Kamoshida trembled against the far wall as the armored guards scattered into dust. Shiho slumped forward, not quite falling to the ground, but exhausted and wired all at once. Boudicca and her attire disappeared, leaving Shiho once again in her school uniform. Shiho shot one last glance at Kamoshida and dashed out of the door, not looking back, with only one thing on her mind;  _ “I have to find Akira.” _

Doing so would prove much harder than anticipated, having to dodge guards at every turn as she attempted to find her way down to the dungeons, where she’d overheard some guards claiming ‘the other intruder’ was kept.

The dungeons, once found, were just as easy to navigate as the rest of the castle. Which was to say, not at all. And there were multiple levels to the dungeon. Who would have multiples of that sort of thing!?

Still, somehow, Shiho found herself in front of Akira’s cell as he tried to pick the lock with one of Shiho’s hair clips. 

“Hold on just a moment, I’ll find the key-”

Shiho’s words were interrupted by a hand on her ponytail, pulling her backwards. She let out a scream as she was forcefully held against an armored guard, one of its hand over her mouth and its other arms pinning her arms at her sides, her feet dangling off the ground. Kamoshida was there, again, looking less than pleased about Shiho’s earlier stunt.

“I was planning to kill this eyesore anyway, but it seems that you desire to watch it,” Kamoshida says, gripping Shiho’s chin. All she can give him is a scratching look, her legs unable to reach him to kick. Kamoshida growls and turns back to Akira’s cell. “Drag him out!” he orders. “The punishment for entering  _ my _ castle without permission is death!”

Two of the guards drag Akira out of the cell by his arms, struggling but silent all the while, and force him to his knees. A third lines its sword up with Akira’s neck, and Shiho closes her eyes so she doesn’t have to watch.

_ “Are you simply going to accept your fate?” _ an echoey voice questions, a  _ boom _ going through Akira. His entire body stiffens.  _ “Knowing what he has done before and what he will do again, are you simply going to accept this? Was your previous decision a mistake then?” _

Akira grits his teeth. “It wasn’t.”

_ “Hmph, very well. I have heeded you resolve. Vow to me. I am thou, thou art I… Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon thy name and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own though thou be chained to hell itself!” _

“Come to me… Arsene!”

The blast to pour forth from Akira is enough to make the guard release Shiho and make her stumble to the ground on her knees. Like Shiho, his transformation is drastic and the Persona behind him looks more demonic than helpful, but he fights, and wins.

And in this universe, like many of the others, Kamoshida gets locked in the cell as the two prisoners make their escape. 

“You have one of those too!” Shiho exclaims as they try to catch their breath. “This is so weird! I- I- I  _ seriously don’t get what’s going on! _ ” The frustration is obvious, as is the quiet that overtakes them as they realize they are extremely lost in a side of the dungeon Shiho had not visited.

It takes a talking cat (which may or may not actually be a cat) named Morgana to lead them out of the castle. By the time they leave, ending up outside of the school rather than on the rooftop like they’d left, the sky is painted colors of crimson and pink and yellow, indicating how late it’s gotten. Shiho frowns at her watch.

“School’s already over,” she says, frustration pooling again. “…How much trouble do you think we’re going to be in tomorrow?” The question of with Kamoshida or for skipping isn’t discussed, but still hangs heavy in the air.

Shiho frowns and purses her lips as they head towards the train station, both aching from their odd encounter. She rubs the wrist that Kamoshida held tightly in his grip.

“I think it goes without saying we’re not going to tell anyone about this,” she says, earning a hum of agreement from Akira. “…I think we should sleep on this before we discuss it any further. Meet you on the roof tomorrow?”

Akira nods and hums again, and they part from one another and to their separate trains. 

In another universe, Akira Kursuru, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Ann Takamaki are already on their through Kamoshida’s castle in an effort to take them down. They have all awakened their Personas and are learning to work together as a team. 

In this one, the story is just getting started.

**Author's Note:**

> Some things about Shiho's transformation:
> 
> 1\. Her Arcana is Gemini, something the Lovers Arcana is often called. I did this because of how important she is to Ann. The hydrangea on her scarf represent intelligence, which is something I feel Shiho possesses, and is something the Gemini star sign represents. 
> 
> 2\. Shiho herself is a ninja, who are lithe and powerful without always looking like it. They blend into the background easily. A [naginata](http://www.ninjasword.com/content/11-ninja-weapons#:~:text=Ninja%20swords%2Dninjato%20and%20katana,fearsome%20warriors%20of%20their%20age.) is a ninja weapon that looks a little like a spear. It has another blade in it, if I'm to be correct. Her ranged weapon is a blowdart. I was originally going to give her a fan (so she could pull some Mulan moves) and some shuriken, but these seemed more fun.
> 
> 3\. Her entire thing is based off of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOW2s_23YPs) fan music. Within the comments are where I got the inspiration for her Persona and awakening, buuuuut I couldn't find the person who originally inspired it.


End file.
